Ivy Coach College Admissions Blog

As a piece in “Seventeen” points out, more and more students in India are coming to the United States for their university educations, particularly at Ivy League colleges.

More and more students in India are headed to the Ivies. In fact, we came across a piece in “Seventeen,” a most academic publication for only the most serious of readers, that we figured we’d share with the readers of our college admissions blog. The piece, written by Megan Friedman, is entitled “This College Will Only Let You In If You Have Absolutely Perfect Test Score.” When we read the title of the piece, we figured it would be misleading because there is no college in the United States — not Harvard, not Stanford, not MIT, Princeton, Yale, or Caltech — that will only admit you if you have a perfect SAT or ACT score. Indeed students with perfect or near-perfect SAT and ACT scores are quite often denied admission by these schools. And why? Because they present themselves as boring, as arrogant, as entirely similar to many other applicants, and a host of other reasons. But, as it turns out, the piece in “Seventeen” focuses on the University of Delhi in India so we shall rescind our objection.

As Friedman writes in the piece, “Global Post reports that to get into the University of Delhi, you have to seriously ace those standardized tests. In India, you take six national ‘board’ exams, and then schools see the average of your top four scores. And this year, you’d need a 99.75% to study English, and a perfect 100% if you want to study economics or psychology, to get into the prestigious Delhi school system. Why the crazy-high standards? India has a huge population, lots of young people, and not enough spots at universities to go around. In 2015, 370,000 students applied to the University of Delhi, which has about an equivalent student population to the public university systems in U.S. states like Ohio, California, and New York…What’s a slightly less than perfect student to do? Head to the States. The New York Times reported back in 2011 that students rejected from the University of Delhi instead go to ‘safety schools’ in the U.S. like Dartmouth and Cornell. So next time you think it’s crazy-hard to get the SAT scores you need, just be glad you’re not gunning for a spot in Delhi.”

That’s absurd that Ivy League institutions such as Dartmouth and Cornell are referred to as ‘safety schools’ in this piece. These two institutions offer one of the finest educations in the world and they’re extremely competitive to get into so, while we recognize Ms. Friedman is trying to make a point, this is a little silly. But her greater point is spot on. Indeed more and more students from India are coming to the United States to attend Ivy League and other highly selective colleges. It’s been a growing trend for years and we regularly work with students in India hoping to get into America’s most elite universities. We even now have a physical office in India.

If you’re a student in India (or the parent of a high school student), contact us today (by filling out our consultation form) to get started working with us. We look forward to hearing from you.